A married soldier was found dead days after telling his wife he had cheated on her with a man, an inquest has heard.

Lance Bombardier Richard Jones and wife Jodie had been trying for a baby for more than three years when he began experiencing hallucinations and delusions, a coroner was told.

The 23-year-old, originally from Caerphilly, believed colleagues were trying to hack into his mobile phone and were stealing samples of his hair during the night as part of a plot to throw him out of the Army.

L/Bdr Jones also told his wife he had once been unfaithful to her with another man while the couple were engaged, the inquest heard.

Colleagues from the 14th Regiment Royal Artillery found his lifeless body in the ground-floor flat L/Bdr Jones shared with his wife while “shocked and confused” Jodie stayed with her parents.

A note found in the flat read: “You deserve better.”

Coroner Ian Singleton heard that L/Bdr Jones was found dead only days before his 24th birthday and within weeks of starting to exhibit “paranoid” behaviour.

Bombardier Steven Mitchell described how his best friend was a “fitness fanatic” who used a supplement named Hemo Rage to aid his regime. He said L/Bdr Jones began acting out of character on a group holiday to Lanzarote last September.

“He was paranoid about everything,” he said.

Only 45 minutes after he dropped L/Bdr Jones home following the sailing exercise, Bdr Mitchell said his friend phoned him and told he had confessed to his wife that he had slept with a man.

Bdr Mitchell said: “Richard was totally convinced he had told me about this but it was the first I had heard of it.”

In his statement Bdr Mitchell said he told Mrs Jones about L/Bdr Jones’ erratic behaviour and they agreed he should see a doctor.

L/Bdr Jones’ wife, Jodie, who now lives in St Athan, in the Vale of Glamorgan, was not present at the hearing and was said to be out of the country.

A statement she made following her husband’s death was read at the inquest in Salisbury, Wilts, and described his worsening paranoia and her increasing worries while he was on a training exercise in the Canary Islands.

He arrived home on the evening of October 11 and soon made the revelation about his apparent infidelity.

Mrs Jones said: “He told me ‘I cheated on you while we were engaged, it was with another man’.”

She promised her distressed husband she would not leave him and the couple went to Salisbury District Hospital to seek treatment.

However, he did not want to stay and the couple instead visited their GP the following morning.

After a consultation with a senior medical officer at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Larkhill, Salisbury, L/Bdr Jones said he regretted the experience, which he described as a “one-off”, and wanted to stay with his wife.

He was then referred for another appointment the following week but suffered a further paranoid episode on October 13.

Later the same day Mrs Jones left the couple’s home in Howard-Vyse Road, Larkhill, to visit her parents in South Wales.

The couple parted on “good terms,” she said, and added: “I just needed to escape for a while.”

They spoke on the phone in the early hours of October 14, said Mrs Jones.

When she could not contact him the following day, on October 15, she contacted his colleagues and told them she was concerned about him.

Colleagues went to L/Bdr Jones’ flat and found him lying face-up on the bed, with blood around his mouth, and empty pill packets strewn across the kitchen floor.

Paramedics pronounced L/Bdr Jones dead at the scene.

The cause of death was given as an overdose of painkiller tramadol.

But as coroner Ian Singleton began giving the inquest verdict he was interrupted by an Army representative who accompanied L/Bdr Jones’ parents.

He told Mr Singleton the family wanted to hear further evidence about why L/Bdr Jones had not been immediately referred to a mental health crisis team.

They also asked for further details on the possible effects of L/Bdr Jones’ use of fitness supplement Hemo Rage.

Mr Singleton said the request was “highly irregular” but agreed to adjourn the inquest to obtain further evidence.